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Did Tea Partiers Cheer Man’s Death During Debate?

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“Yeah!”

That’s the word from Monday night’s GOP debate garnering plenty of attention in the blogosphere. It was screamed out by at least one audience member after moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Ron Paul if he would rather see a fictitious patient without health insurance die instead of give him free care.

Here’s the video of the much-talked-about exchange:

Now, there’s no way to know (at this point) who the audience member or members responsible for the comment are. Were they conservatives really cheering the hypothetical death of someone? Was it a delayed reaction to Paul’s immediate response? Or, were they liberals cheering Blitzer’s question?

Either way, many are interpreting it as the first option. Business Insider says the outburst is another example of a debate audience cheering death, since attendees did something similar during last week’s debate. HuffPo notes that Paul’s response to the question was actually quite good, but “that it was clearly overshadowed by the members of the crowd who enthusiastically cheered the prospect of letting a man die rather than picking up the tab for his coverage.” And finally, Talking Points Memo made sure to note that Monday’s outburst emanated from a “tea party-filled audience.”

Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher notes that the audience (which he characterizes as having a CNN half and a Tea Party half) also cheered when Blitzer asked if Bernanke should be tried for treason — a question that also had a tinge of death.